The anticipation was high and the crowd was roaring. The Orioles were one strike away from their 80th win and Félix Bautista - their All-Star closer - was one away from his 34th save.

This was usually where he blows a fastball by someone or buries a split for a swinging third strike to send Camden Yards into a frenzy.

But this time the game did not end, but Bautista's outing did as Camden Yards went from very loud to very quiet in a very short span.

So for now we wait for further word on Bautista and his arm discomfort. We await word on the tests manager Brandon Hyde said they would do to further examine Bautista.

Before the pitch that put a damper on an otherwise good night, the Orioles did a lot right late in the game to pull out their 80th win.

After the Orioles (79-48) won a series against Toronto – taking the last two games after losing the series opener – they host Colorado to begin a new series tonight. The Rockies are in town through Sunday and the homestand continues Monday versus the Chicago White Sox.

Colorado just lost three games at Tropicana Field against the Tampa Bay Rays, and the Rockies (48-79) have lost four in a row overall and 11 of their past 14 games. They have the worst record in the National League. All three losses versus Tampa Bay were last at-bat losses, and the Rockies have been in the lead or tied for the lead in the eighth inning in each game of their four-game losing streak.

Colorado is 20-46 on the road, 15-22 in interleague games and 14-22 in the second half.

The Rockies are now a season-low 31 games below .500. It's the fifth time in franchise history the club has been at least 30 games below .500, the first time since 2014. The franchise record for games below .500 is 38, when the Rockies were 36-74 on Aug. 7, 1993.

The Rockies have used a franchise record 32 total pitchers this season, one more than the 2019 club’s 31 hurlers. Colorado ranks 29th in MLB with a 5.57 team ERA and is 29th in rotation ERA (5.93) and 27th in bullpen ERA (5.14). Colorado's road ERA of 5.06 ranks 27th in the majors.  

He has been so good for the Orioles bullpen this year, but there was a stretch a few weeks back when right-hander Yennier Cano was more hittable.

Heading into a series in late July with the New York Yankees, Cano went through a 10-game stretch where his ERA was 5.00 and opponents were batting .368 with an OPS of 1.000 against him.

It was then that Cano decided to tweak a pitch mix that mostly has been about two pitches – a two-seam sinking fastball and changeup – and make it now three.

“Think the biggest difference has been incorporating my slider,” he said yesterday with the help of O’s interpreter Brandon Quinones, talking about his recent strong pitching. “When they were hitting me better, I was going through some adjustments to incorporate my slider and then figured some of those things out. Now that I have a much better feel for it and have the slider more down pat, it’s more difficult for the hitters to get a read on me now that that pitch is in the repertoire.”

For the year, Cano is 1-2 with a 1.62 ERA and 0.984 WHIP in 57 games and 61 innings. 

The Orioles are looking for another series win tonight as they host the Toronto Blue Jays to wrap up a three-game series. Toronto won in 10 innings 6-3 Tuesday night while the O’s won 7-0 last night on a four-pitcher, five-hitter.

It started with the starter.

Right-hander Dean Kremer pitched six scoreless on five hits with five strikeouts. He improved to 12-5 with an ERA of 4.31. He has an ERA of 3.06 over his past nine starts. Jacob Webb, Yennier Cano and Shintaro Fujinami finished the outing retiring nine in a row. Webb has thrown 8 2/3 scoreless on two hits with 12 strikeouts in nine games as an Oriole.

AL wins leaders:

13 - Zach Eflin, TB
12 - Dean Kremer & Kyle Gibson, O's, Chris Bassitt, Toronto

He hasn’t pitched for the Orioles since Aug. 5, but they will be thrilled to have one of their high-leverage relievers back tonight. Lefty Danny Coulombe (left bicep tendinitis) was activated off the 15-day injured list and Nick Vespi was optioned back to Triple-A.

Coulombe has been a great addition for the Baltimore bullpen, going 3-1 with a 2.77 ERA in 47 games. Over 39 innings he has allowed 34 hits with nine walks to 48 strikeouts and with a 1.103 WHIP.

Late in a long season, getting a few days to rest his arm was not necessarily a bad thing.

“I think the bicep tendinitis thing, it was probably something I only needed a few days for," said Coulombe this afternoon. "But honestly at this point, it was one of those things we felt it was best to give me the 15 days and be ready for the stretch run. I think it’s going to be good. Just really exciting to get going now this last month and a half two months."

Coulombe made one rehab appearance and threw a hitless and scoreless inning with two strikeouts Tuesday night for Triple-A Norfolk.

The Orioles have now gone 80 consecutive series dating to May of 2022 without being swept in a series. Their win by 7-0 over Toronto last night pushed their incredible streak to 80.

No sweep for the Blue Jays and maybe even no series victory if Baltimore can win tonight.

The Orioles (78-48) are leading the AL East by two games over Tampa Bay and by 8.5 over Toronto. They have won four of five, seven of 10, 15 of 22 and 29 of their past 42 games.

Dean Kremer, now 12-5 with an ERA of 4.31 threw six scoreless on 94 pitches for his third scoreless start of the year. Over his past nine outings, Kremer is 4-1 with a 3.06 ERA.

O's starters have allowed three earned runs or less in 21 of their past 24 games. In those 21 games, the rotation ERA is 2.71.

The Orioles have gone 10 straight American League East series without losing one since April – going 8-0-2 - but they have a challenge to win their current series with the Toronto Blue Jays.

After Toronto’s 6-3 win Monday in 10 innings, the Orioles now need two straight wins to take another division series. The Orioles are now 24-15 for the year in AL East games and are 22-11 during the unbeaten 10-series run within the division.

Brandon Belt’s two-run homer in the 10th off Mike Baumann - who was optioned to Triple-A today - gave Toronto a 5-3 lead. That lead grew to three runs when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. doubled and scored on a wild pitch.

That double was Guerrero’s first extra-base hit this year off Baltimore pitching. After getting three hits last night he is now batting .200 (8-for-40) with a .529 OPS in 11 games this season versus Baltimore, with one double and two RBIs.

Toronto (70-56) is in third place and moved to within 7 1/2 games of the division-leading Orioles. The Blue Jays are now 38-29 on the road and 18-7 in their past 25 road games. They are 12-23 versus AL East teams and 8-7 in extra innings.

When last seen pitching for the Orioles in mid-June, right-hander Austin Voth had allowed six runs in 4 2/3 innings over a five-game stretch with a .391 batting average against.

That led to a trip to the injured list with right elbow discomfort, and just today Voth has returned to the Orioles' active roster. He was activated from the 60-day IL as Mike Baumann was optioned to Triple-A and Keegan Akin transferred to the 60-day IL with lower back discomfort.

Through his June 13 appearance, Voth went 1-2 with a 4.94 ERA and 1.581 WHIP over 31 innings in 23 games.

He said today he feels healthy and ready to rejoin and help this team.

“For the most part, yeah. Definitely took a little bit longer than I wanted to," Voth said. "But definitely glad to be back.

The Orioles have not had an American League Rookie of the Year since pitcher Gregg Olson won it in 1989. Last year Adley Rutschman finished a distant second to Seattle’s Julio Rodriguez, who got 29 of the 30 first-place votes by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

But this year Gunnar Henderson is a strong candidate to end a long stretch where the Orioles have not had a ROY.

Their first was Ron Hansen in 1960, followed by Curt Blefary in 1965, Al Bumbry in 1973, Eddie Murray in 1977, Cal Ripken Jr. in 1982 and Olson. If he gets it, Henderson would be the seventh O’s ROY.

Henderson leads AL rookies in baseball-refernce.com WAR at 4.0 and leads among FanGraphs WAR for AL rookies at 3.1.

I asked him in the Baltimore clubhouse before the start of the series with Toronto if Rookie of the Year talk is flattering for him, distracting, or none of the above?

They played nine straight games on the West Coast, going 6-3 and tonight the Orioles begin a stretch of nine straight games at home. They will host the Toronto Blue Jays, Colorado Rockies and Chicago White Sox for three games each through Aug. 30.

The Orioles (77-47), now a season-best 30 games over the .500 mark, lead the AL East by three games over Tampa Bay, by 8.5 over Toronto, by 11.5 over Boston and by 17 games over the New York Yankees. Tampa Bay begins a series tonight at home versus Colorado.

The Orioles were off on Monday after a 12-1 win at Oakland Sunday to complete their seventh three-game sweep of the season. They scored 28 runs in the Oakland series after scoring 17 runs in the first six games of the road trip.

The Orioles are 24-14 on the year against AL East teams. And, since losing their first two division series of 2023, they are 8-0-2 over their past 10, going 22-10 in the 32 games in those series.

They are 8-2 this year and have outscored Toronto 60-31, going 3-0 at Toronto in May, 2-1 at home in June and 3-1 at Rogers Centre in a series that ended Aug. 3.

It was just recently where Gunnar Henderson went through a seven-game period when he was just 2-for-25 (.080) at bat with seven strikeouts. And it wasn’t that long ago.

From the last game of the New York Mets series on Aug. 6 through three games in Seattle to start the West Coast swing where Henderson went hitless, he had just those two hits, both singles and just one RBI in that span.

But now he is coming off a game where he produced four extra-base hits and is just the 11^th Oriole to have four in one game – something that had not been done since Aug. 17, 2008 when Melvin Mora did it.

Gunnar can be hard on himself and noted both his hot series in Oakland and a slower stretch that preceded it when asked about his swing today heading into this Toronto series.

“Feeling pretty good. Had a little bit of a (slow) stretch there. But feeling good at the plate the whole time. Just stuff didn’t fall. But now looking forward to keeping this going,” he said.

A few stats, thoughts and opinions as the first-place Orioles, a team that has not lost an AL East series since April 9, gets ready to host third-place Toronto tonight. For the O’s it is the start of a nine-game homestand against the Jays, Rockies and White Sox.

* The O’s pitching has been pretty darn good for well over 40 games now. After allowing just one run on Sunday, the O’s team ERA is 3.62 since July 1. And they are 29-15 (.659) in 44 games in that time.

As of Sunday, that was the fourth-best ERA in the AL in that stretch and sixth-best in MLB. And the O’s starters had thrown the third-most innings of any team in that span.

So yeah, pretty good.

And while the team ERA for the year is 4.08 to rank eighth in the AL, it’s much better in this span of games which is over a month and not just a good series or a good few weeks. It’s the kind of pitching they would probably need to win October games and the kind they got in the last two games at Seattle where they beat a hot team 1-0 and 5-3 back-to-back in ten innings.

The Orioles will certainly take some momentum into their AL East series at home tomorrow night against third-place Toronto. 

They blasted Oakland 12-1 on Sunday to produce their seventh three-game sweep of the year. For those that love run differential, the Orioles outscored the Athletics 28-7 over the weekend.

Gunnar Henderson had four extra-base hits to tie a team record and he became the 11th Oriole in club history to have four in one game. His day included a double in the third, triple in the fourth, solo homer in the seventh and another double in the eighth. He drove in a run with that two-bagger when a single would have given him the cycle.

The other Orioles to have four extra base hits in a game were Charle Lau in 1962, Don Baylor in 1973, Dave Duncan in 1975, Cal Ripken Jr. in 1983, Brady Anderson in 1994 and 1998, Will Clark in 1999, Albert Belle twice in 1999, Chris Richard in 2000, Miguel Tejada in 2004 and 2005 and the last to do it was Melvin Mora on Aug. 17, 2008 against the Tigers with two doubles and two homers.

The Orioles went 6-1 in the season series and scored 57 runs versus Oakland pitching.

The Orioles' West Coast road trip began with an impressive series win at Seattle against a red-hot Mariners team, and they won the last two games of the series in 10 innings. They lost two of three at San Diego, but a win today would give them a three-game sweep at Oakland to end the trip.

A winning road trip is already secured and so is a series win at Oakland. But they will end the trip at 6-3 with a victory this afternoon.

The Orioles (76-47) have a chance to go 30 games over the .500 mark today and take a 2 1/2 game lead over the Tampa Ray Rays atop the American League East. Toronto is 8 1/2 games back with Boston 11 behind and New York 16 games out.

The Orioles scored eight runs in three games in Seattle, scored nine runs in three at San Diego and have scored 16 runs in the first two games at Oakland. They have 25 hits in this series with five doubles, a triple and three homers.

They have gone 8-for-22 (.364) with runners in scoring position this series after going 8-for-34 (.235) with RISP the first six games on the trip.

This just in: Cedric Mullins is pretty important to the Orioles.

While his bat has not yet consistently heated up as he returned to the active roster to start the road trip last weekend in Seattle, he won a game against the Mariners with an incredible late-game performance. And that reminded us just how good he can be and just how big having him in the lineup is to this club.

A club that is looking to win the AL East for the first time since the 2014 season and has had to endure two long stretches with its center fielder on the injured list.

Mullins first went on the IL in late May with a right groin strain and returned June 24. But on July 19 he was back on the 10-day IL with a right adductor groin strain. He played four rehab games for Double-A Bowie, going 3-for-20 before rejoining the club as the road trip began in Seattle.

"We're excited to have him back," manager Brandon Hyde said then. "He feels good and joined us on the trip last night. He's had a couple of stints on the IL and we are hoping to he can stay healthy for us the rest of the year. He's a big part of our club and makes a huge impact for us offensively and defensively." 

With a 4-3 record on their West Coast road trip, a win tonight by the Orioles would produce both a series victory in Oakland and ensure the club has a winning road trip with one game to play on Sunday.

The Orioles (75-47) beat the Athletics 9-4 last night as they produced 16 hits - six for extra-bases - and went 6-for-14 with runners in scoring position. The O's scored nine runs in three games in San Diego.

That was the 15th time this year the Orioles have scored nine or more runs in one game and not surprisingly, they are 15-0. It was the fourth time they had 16 or more hits - the season high is 20 on July 6 at New York - and they are 4-0. Their season high for runs is in a 15-2 win July 9 at Minnesota.

The O's offense now ranks fifth in the league in batting average (.252), seventh in OBP (.318), fifth in slugging (.421) and seventh in OPS (.738). The O's average 4.86 runs per game, which is tied for fourth in the AL and is tied for seventh in MLB.

The Orioles avoided a third straight loss Friday night. They have now won four of six, 12 of 18, 18 of 28 and 26 of their past 38 games.

Courtesy: Baltimore Orioles

It’s time to take a moment to appreciate the heater that young catcher Samuel Basallo is on these days for High-A Aberdeen. Basallo is now a Top 100 prospect and in March in our second MASNSports.com rankings of Orioles international prospects, he was ranked No. 1 after coming in second on the list in 2022.

Basallo, who turned 19 last Sunday, was signed by the club for $1.3 million, their top bonus from the class of 2021. He then produced a .762 OPS in his first two pro seasons, playing 41 games in the Dominican Summer League in 2021 and 43 last year in the Florida Complex League. 

From scouts, Basallo gets strong grades for both his big power and for his strong arm.

“He is going to mis-hit some homers, he is that strong,” said Koby Perez, the Orioles senior director of international scouting in a March interview for our international rankings series. “He may feel he popped it up or didn’t get it all, but it will go over some of these fences. His arm is also well above average, looks elite at times. He is still working on his blocking and overall concentration, but he should catch a whole lot this year and continue to grow at the position.”

Basallo started this year as the O’s No. 15 prospect via Baseball America and is now their No. 5 prospect in the team top 30 ranking and No. 48 in their Top 100. On the MLBPipeline.com list he moved from No. 12 preseason to No. 5 now in the team ranking and is No. 50 on their top 100 list. He’s flown up both boards.

After an off-day, the Orioles' road trip moves on to Oakland tonight for the start of a three-game weekend series. 

The Orioles (74-47) lead the American League East by two games over Tampa Bay, which also plays on the West Coast tonight against the Los Angeles Angels. 

The Orioles lost their last two games at San Diego. But over longer stretches they have won four of seven, 11 of 17, 17 of 27, 25 of 37 and 26 of 40. Playing .612 ball, the Orioles have the best record in the AL and third-best in MLB behind the Braves and Dodgers. 

Oakland (34-87) has had a miserable season pretty much since the start of the year. They began the season going 3-16 and 5-23.

It has gotten a bit better recently, with Oakland going 22-37 (.373) over the last 59 games dating back to June 6 after going 12-50 (.194) over the first 62 contests. Oakland is playing .281 baseball after 121 games. At this pace they would finish the year at 46-116. The last two Major League teams to finish with a winning percentage under .290 are the 2003 Tigers (43-119, .265) and 1962 Mets (40-120, .250).

BOWIE, Md. – Jackson Holliday, shortstop at Double-A Bowie and the No. 1 ranked prospect in baseball, is working hard in the hours leading up to game time so that when first pitch arrives every night, he is ready to unleash his considerable talent and skills on opponent pitchers.

In a recent interview at Prince George’s Stadium, Holliday said he continues to learn better how to use the extensive scouting reports he gets on the pitchers he will see. He is learning to better use information not just on what a pitcher may throw, but how he prefers to use his pitches and what locations he most uses those pitches to get outs.

Getting better at this process not only helps Holliday now, but in the future when he gets to the big league level where the scouting and pre-game planning is most extensive. 

“I really enjoy looking at the pitcher’s plots and scouting reports,” he said. “Feel like I’m doing a good job of knowing what I am getting myself into each at-bat. I try to use that as much as possible to create a game plan. For the most part you have never faced these guys, so I want to know what I am getting into. Feel like that is going well so far.

“Every single guy has a different percentage of what he throws on different counts. So, to be able to eliminate pitches to help myself have a better chance of getting a hit can be big. But for the most part you also need to be looking for fastballs.

When catcher Samuel Basallo of the Dominican Republic, who just turned 19, recently moved into the top 50 of a couple of top 100 prospects lists, it was an important milestone for the Orioles’ international program.

He is the first player from the international program since Mike Elias and his front office took over to make a top 100 and now a top 50. A strong accomplishment for the international program.

But recently at Low Single-A Delmarva, there was another big night that was pretty important as well and had meaning for a lot of people. Noelberth Romero, 21, from Caracas, Venezuela, became a high school graduate.

It was a proud moment for Romero, his family and the Orioles organization. Dressed in cap and gown, he was presented his diploma by Shorebirds manager Felipe Alou Jr. There was a clubhouse celebration for Romero in addition to an on-field ceremony.

Among the first to sign up for the O’s education program in 2020, Romero becomes the first to make it to the finish line – graduation. He now becomes a role model for others who want to join him in the O’s Latin American program.